Our cheesemaking day begins at dawn with a pasteurizing vat — or two – full of fresh goat milk from Humboldt County farms. We know it is impossible to make great cheese with anything less than perfect milk. So before heating the milk, samples are taken to our lab and tested for quality. Our dairies are paid on milk quality: we look for cleanliness, a high percentage of protein, and low overall bacteria counts. To encourage milk quality, several years ago we implemented a bonus system. Since then, quality has exceeded Grade A and our farms maintain higher standards and earn more money for their milk than ever before. The vat is heated to bring the milk to pasteurizing temperature of 145 degrees and held for 30 minutes before cooling. To maintain the delicate flavors of the goat milk, we use the vat pasteurization method despite the extra time it takes. Unlike most cheese plants that use high temperature, short-time pasteurization, our milk is never heated to the extreme temperatures. When the milk is cooled and still in the vat, we add our cultures. We choose our cultures carefully after making sample batches of cheese with cultures from both European and domestic sources. A cheese maker's culture is always a carefully guarded secret, so much so that even if two cheesemakers use an identical recipe, one cheese may have more flavor, a better texture, or age more smoothly than the other. We believe the cultures we choose give our cheese that “something extra,” earning gold medals for most of our Cypress Grove products. After the cultures have begun the ripening process, the milk is pumped into small twenty and forty gallon vats. At this point, a vegetable enzyme is stirred into each vat. The vegetable enzyme helps the milk “set up” in about 18 hours. Previously we used calf rennet in the place of vegetable enzyme. We have found, however, that the new enzymes work beautifully and give us an outstanding cheese without the use of animal protein… Very important to our vegetarian cheese lovers!

When the Cypress Grove team enters the cheesemaking room the next morning, the vats are full of curd. (Imagine: 2,000 gallons of yogurt, white and smooth with a bit of whey floating on top. That’s a lot of yogurt!) The cheesemaking room smells clean and fresh, and it’s now time to ladle and hang the curd. We begin with an 8-ounce soup ladle and fill small disk-shaped cheese molds to overflowing. The molds rest on specially designed tables to lift cheese out of the whey, and allow the draining process to begin immediately. While the disks of fresh chevre begin to drain, the cheesemakers line up small baskets with cheesecloth and carefully scoop the remaining curd into the baskets. The cheesecloth is tied around the curd and the bag is hung to drain. The fragrance of fresh cheese accompanied by the sounds of whey draining fill the air. Little Miss Muffet where are you? Your curds and whey are here! Once the fresh Chevre has drained in its molds — reduced in volume by about half —the cheesemakers return to top off the molds with additional curd. By the end of the day, the vats are washed, the room is cleaned, and the cheese is left to develop overnight.

On the morning of Day 3, the cheesemakers arrive at the creamery to find the cheeses in their molds have once again drained to half their original size. At this point, each cheese is delicately turned out of its mold, turned again, and then placed back into the mold. This helps the cheese to drain further and gives each Chevre disk a nice, rounded shape. The tops are lightly salted to facilitate moisture reduction and improve flavor development. Unlike other types of cheese, Chevre is never pressed. The bags of hanging curd have also decreased in size by about two thirds. They are twisted to help the draining process. (You might be surprised to learn that a cheesemaker needs about ten pounds of milk to garner a pound and a half of cheese. That’s a lot of draining!) The collected whey is then pumped out and everything is once again cleaned. With a new batch of milk already in the pasteurizer vat, the cheesemaking cycle is ready to begin anew.

Today the fresh Chevre will be turned out onto drying trays: each cheese is removed from its mold, turned upside down, and salted. The curd is removed from its bag and placed in vats where it will later become mild and fresh Fromage Blanc, Chevre Logs, or any number of other cheeses. How can one gallon of milk become so
many magnificent cheeses? We never get tired of the magic!
This is the art of cheesemaking at its finest.